upcoming nervous breakdowns and the gold standard

So I spent a lot of time today thinking about the admission decisions that should be coming next week.  I’m not worried too much about my “safe” UCs; I don’t see myself being rejected by schools with 70%+ acceptance rates.  

But I also don’t see myself going to a backup school.  Maybe if I weren’t undocumented, and had access to financial aid, I would consider going to one of my backups.  But I see what fellow AB540 students have to go through to pay for college-- working multiple jobs, taking time off from school-- and I don’t think that a school I only kind of want to go to is worth that much work.  

Anyhow, I stumbled upon a not-so-cheery realization while thinking about all this; If I don’t get into Berkeley, I’ll move on and make sure that I get the grades to gain admission as a transfer student.  

I’ll be sad, and it’s hard to say just how much, but I’m already getting used to the idea of a jc, so if I do have a mental breakdown, it will probably not be a crippling one. 

But I already knew that.

My new realization was that if I do get in, things aren’t gonna be any better, because then I’ll know that the only thing keeping me from Berkeley is money.

So, bottom line, I have some sort of mental breakdown to look forward to around my birthday…

Fortunately, my government teacher’s stupidity saved me from feeling too sad today.  I’d been successfully avoiding paying attention-- which I’ve learned is the only way for me to survive in that class-- when I heard her say “The U.S. is on the gold standard; they can‘t print money unless they have gold to back it up.”  I couldn’t, in all good conscious, ignore that.  It’s bad enough when she talks about the “bi-caramel legislature” (and makes me crave chocolate).  I am just trying to survive the 6 weeks left in this required class.  I WAS going to take AP Government and Economics, but there weren’t enough students for that class.  AND, I’m told that Ms. A was the AP Government teacher  *shudder.*

Anyhow, back to the gold standard.  I raised my hand, and told her, that the United States is not on the gold standard anymore.  

“Do you mean to tell me that the U.S. doesn‘t print money backed up by anything.”

“Yes. It‘s called fiat money.”

That went on for a while.  I finally gave up, comforted by the fact that most of the class seemed to know by now that she is not someone to be listened to.  

And I came home to wikipedia, 

“The gold standard is not currently used by any government, having been replaced completely by fiat currency.”

Victory should feel sweeter, no?

God, I can’t wait to get out of high school.